The Yukon Party government has been callous and disrespectful in its handling of the 51 reindeer that were shot to death last Saturday, say the leaders of both opposition parties.

The government has applied a double standard in the approach to a confirmed case of Johne's disease, and Environment Minister Peter Jenkins has hung out the public service to take the heat while he ducks the issue, says Liberal Leader Pat Duncan.

'Not only did the public servants carry out what was a political decision, they have been put up to answer all the questions,' Duncan said in an interview this morning. 'He certainly is not taking any responsibility.'

Duncan asked what it would have taken for the minister to have met with Tim and Stella Gregory to discuss the postive test results for Johne's and the cabinet decision to destroy the entire herd.

The reindeer had been seized by the government from the Gregorys' Northern Splendor Reinder Farm north of Whitehorse in late March, at the end of a longstanding standoff between the Gregorys and the Yukon government.

Stella had been retained, however, to feed and care for the animals that had been relocated to a pen at Mile 10 of the Mayo Road.

She only found out by chance last Friday afternoon that it had been decided to kill the remaining 51 reindeer.

Department staff explained during a press conference Tuesday morning that it was necessary to maintain secrecy to ensure that nobody would try to save the reindeer by springing them loose into the wild before they were slaughtered.

Hardy also describes the government's approach as political and the treatment of the Gregorys as callous.

'This is a government that has completely lost its sense of conscience, and moral sense of duty to the people of the Yukon,' he said in an interview this morning while visiting family members in Toronto.

Both Hardy and Duncan describe the herd's destruction as a double standard, given the approach to the outbreak of Johne's on the government-owned Yukon Wildlife Preserve on the Takhini Hot Springs Road.

When the contagious and deadly disease was detected at the wildlife preserve, Jenkins and his elected colleagues downplayed any urgency. They instead approved a plan to manage and attempt to eradicate the disease at what was formerly known as the Yukon Game Farm, both opposition leaders pointed out.

Hardy said it was suggested by staff that a similar approach to the reindeer herd would have been too expensive, yet the goverment paid more than $2 million for the preserve and is continuing to finance its operation.

Rather, Hardy suspects, that when attempts to have the herd shipped outside the territory to a new home were finally exhausted, there arose a political opportunity to deal with a situation the government had been unable to resolve for the past year.

The government, said Hardy, has applied a definite double standard; on one hand, it decides to execute an entire reindeer herd it's been at odds with over the last year; on the other, it kills only the known diseased animals at the wildlife preserve, while implementing a management plan to control its spread with hopes of eradicating it.

'Its the double standard that really bothers me,' said Duncan.

Officials with the Department of the Environment explained Tuesday there was every indication that there was widespread infection of Johne's among the reindeer herd.

Given the positive test in all three reindeer that were culled for unrelated health reasons and the opportunity for the disease to spread, given the size of the enclosure they shared, it's likely that maybe two or three were not infected and that could be a stretch, Michelle Oakley, a regional wildlife biologist with the department and a doctor of veterinary medicine, told reporters Tuesday.

Oakley, Whitehorse veterinarian Rick Brown, a B.C. vet and a professor of veterinary medicine at the University of Saskatchewan all agreed the destruction of the entire herd was the wisest course of action, department staff maintained Tuesday.

Oakley noted to begin separating the animals and moving them about while awaiting confirmation of test results over weeks and months could simply result in contaminating more and more pasture land when the odds of finding undiseasesed animals was slim.

The Yukon Fish and Game Association came out Tuesday in support of the decision to destroy the herd.

Association spokesman Jim Haney said while it was obviously an emotional and difficult task for department staff, it was necessary to minimize the risk to the Yukon's indigenous wildlife.

All but five animals were corralled and shot last Saturday, the first five having been outside the corral.

A variety of blood, tissue and fecal samples, as well as others, were taken from the dead reindeer and will be sent to a lab for testing, it was explained.

Conservation officer Tony Grabowski described Saturday as the worst day of his 31-year career, and not one he will soon forget.

The Gregorys held their own press conference Tuesday morning. They suggested the slaughter was unnecessary and called into question the validity of the scientific evidence the government is using to justify its actions.

The Gregorys and the government fell out of grace with each other two years ago when the Yukon Act was amended and provisions for trade in reindeer were not been provided for. The Gregorys were unable to obtain any permits for the sale of animals.

The government initially agreed to provide food for the animals. It reversed its decision this past winter, resulting in the Gregorys threatening to turn them loose at the end of March because theycwould no longer afford to feed them.

The couple described the government's actions as nothing more than a deceitful plan to gain control of the herd and do what it did, simply to have the matter over and done with.

Before Johne's was detected among the reindeer, the government had hired a private consulting firm to appraise the herd and provide a recommendation to the cabinet regarding compensation for the Gregorys.